In an effort to reduce crowding and be proactive about the area’s growing population, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District 622 has begun planning for remodeling work to be done at two area elementary schools.

Students from three School District 622 middle schools who participated in Project Citizen, a bipartisan program to promote civic engagement, met with State Sen. Chuck Wiger on May 15 in the Capitol Rotunda. Pictured with Wiger are Skyview Middle School eighth-graders, from left, Gretchen Draves, Molly Holthe, Ashley Medina, Margaret Pawlenty, Olivia Meyer and Sydney Tiffany. Their project was about the use of road salt, and how it impacts the environment.

Solomon Gustavo • A resident talked about water softening services at the end of New Brighton City Manager Dean Lotter’s water update presentation during the New Brighton Community Open House at the New Brighton Community Center May 5. During Lotter’s presentation, he said the city found very low concentrations of lead in some of the city’s tap water.

After finding a robin’s nest in his New Brighton yard, Jesús Aguirre decided to put up a surveillance camera in order to observe the bird, the nest and, eventually, the hatching of the eggs.

It was just a few weeks before the 2018 Governor’s Fishing Opener on Green Lake in Spicer when the Willmar Lakes Planning Committee came together with determination and equipment to rid the lake of 25 inches of ice in time for the big day.

Marjorie Otto photo/Review • The Rivoli Bluff Farm, located in the Railroad Island neighborhood at the western end of Minnehaha Avenue, consists of a large garden, an orchard, beehives and a gravel garden for starting trees. New this year, a high tunnel greenhouse is being constructed, which will extend the time for produce to grow. The farm is run by Urban Roots, an East Side youth organization that employs area high school students and teaches them agriculture, cooking and conservation skills.

Walking down to the Rivoli Bluff Farm, some may forget they are still in the heart of the city as they breath the smell of fresh-turned soil and watch bees whiz by.

A second teenage boy has pleaded guilty to charges related to the March shooting death of a 19-year-old man outside an Inver Grove Heights movie theater that happened as people fought after departing a party bus.